Managing institutional development projects : water and sanitation sector

Elements of successful projects are discussed first, in a section covering pre-design and design issues, specification of goals, sequencing of activities, and project start-up. Lessons learned - primarily from the author"s own field experience - are then set forth under the following headings: change management; the nature of the consulting relationship; skills and technology transfer; managing the process of institutional change (steering and management committees, focus groups, task forces); project review mechanisms (monitoring workshops, formal evaluation); decisionmaking in the cultural setting; and managing external forces. Most of these lessons are applicable to institution building in other sectors as well. Appended are a short bibliography and a number of worksheets to be used in evaluating institutional performance.